t and taken my part,
besides asking me to be his comrade? That alone would have made me his
staunch ally, even without the proffer of his friendship; so, needless
to say, I vowed there and then my fealty as his chum through thick and
thin!

Presently, Tom took me round to a side door of the house, through which
admittance was gained to the kitchen, where, procuring some water, he
helped me to stop the bleeding from my nose, caused by Slodgers' blow,
and otherwise wash away the traces of the combat. We subsequently
returned to the "playground," Tom saying that we could remain there if
we liked until the tea-bell rang, as it was a half-holiday, and there
were no more lessons for the day.

The other boys had mostly gone in by this time, disappearing in batches
of twos and threes, tired of being out in the bare yard, and having
exhausted all attempts at amusing themselves. We remained here over an
hour longer, walking up and down, exchanging confidences and forming the
most wonderful plans of what we would do together bye-and-bye, not only
while at school, but when we grew up and went into the world. I, of
course, told him all about my cruel bringing-up under Aunt Matilda's
auspices, and he imparted the information that he was almost an orphan
like myself; his father, who was a clergyman, having died early and left
his widowed mother with a large number of children to support on a
scanty income; whence the fact of his being at such a poor second-rate
school as Dr Hellyer's, about which Tom then proceeded to unfold the
most wonderful revelations.

The master, he said, in spite of his generally having thirty boys at
least, from whom he managed to get an income of six hundred a year or
so, was always in hard straits, and at his wit's end for money;
although, apparently, he could not have any great expenditure, the rent
of the house or houses occupied by the school being cheap, his cost for
the aid of masters not by any means excessive, and the boys' keep not
too extravagant, judging by the meals they had. Dr Hellyer was "an
ignorant, uncultivated brute," Tom averred, and his degree of "Doctor"
was only derived from the fact of his having paid ten dollars to an
American university to air this specious prefix to his scholastic name!

The whole school, my new friend told me, was a sham, for, instead of
there being some dozen of masters, as stated in the prospectus sent to
Uncle George, there were only two besides "The Do